Here is the remainder of what I managed to record at the Zoviet France show back in 1991.

ADRV consisted of members of Crash Worship, and were originally based out of the San Diego area. I lived in SD a good portion of my life, so I had the opportunity to see many of their live performances - always an intense experience. I'm not sure if they are still performing/recording. Their Discogs listing ends several years ago.

Randy Greif runs Swinging Axe Productions in addition to releasing many CDs on the Soleilmoon/Staalplaat labels - the 5 CD Alice in Wonderland set being one of his best known titles.

Randy Greif & ADRV played separate sets, as well as together. There are four tracks split into two files. The first file is one long track (41 min) that is Randy Greif, and possibly ADRV as well. The second file contains three shorter tracks that appear to be just ADRV.

Also in the second file are scans of the Zoviet France interview I did for Technology Works and a Crash Worship interview that Paul Moore did for Technology Works. Eric Lanzilotta of, now sadly defunct, Anomalous Records (the absolute best mail-order/distro of experimental music in the US) also contributed to the Zoviet France interview. Eric has moved on to a new label and a magazine.

There is also a scan of a Crash Worship sticker I randomly found while digging around for my copies of Technology Works. The sticker appears to be from their Triple Mania II era.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Lately, I've been a little hesitant to post due to being so behind on checking out other sharing blogs and keeping track of what has already been covered. Here is a cassette from my archives I'm pretty confident nobody has posted. It is taken from the 1991 Zoviet France US tour. This was the June 2nd show in Chula Vista, California - located south of San Diego, near the Mexican border.

The performance took place at a Masonic Lodge in Chula Vista. It was truly an odd locale, but it turned out to be a great show.

The quality of the recording isn't the greatest, but one would never guess it was recorded on a portable cassette recorder with either a cheap or built-in mic. I brought the recorder to interview the group for a fanzine I contributed to at the time, Technology Works. Recording the concert was an afterthought considering the equipment I was using. I brought extra blank tape in case of an emergency and figured I might as well record as much of the multiple sets with the extra space.

I still remember, during the interview, they were hand decorating the first edition of their Vienna 1990 CDs.

There was a modern/interpretive dancer who performed during their set. I remember years ago seeing on-line pictures of her from other shows on that tour, but a quick GIS didn't produce any.

Also on the bill were ADRV (a trimmed down Crash Worship) and Randy Greif. I plan to post what I recorded from those sets in the next few days. If I can dig up a copy of the zine/interview, I will scan and post that as well...

There are about 80 minutes in total that I was able to record (pt.1 is 51 min, and pt.2 is 29 min). I do not recall how long the actual performance lasted. I think it is a great document of their style at the time, and hope you will appreciate it as well. If anyone reading this is not familiar with their output, but enjoys this post, I strongly urge tracking down their mid/late-80's to early 90's releases for starters, although there is probably very little of their music that I dislike.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

While rummaging through my HD, clearing space to rip some more vinyl, I found this LP I recorded last year and subsequently forgot about...

This is the 1982 LP from the Japanese group Gran Guignol. It was released on the highly sought-after label Pinakotheca, best known for the first Keiji Haino & Nord LPs. The LP is housed in a screen-printed outer plastic sleeve with red cherubs.

I don't know anything about this band, nor any connections to other contemporary groups.

This isn't the greatest material of the early 80's Japanese scene, and in no way holds a candle to other releases on this or the Vanity label, but I think there are still some ok moments, and interesting merging of styles. There is an overall new wave/80's 'feel' to the album, but there are prog, jazz and electronic elements as well.

The tracks are titled in Japanese. I have labeled them as OUT-1 to OUT-4 for the A side, and IN-1 to IN-4 for the B side. IN-3 and IN-4 segue into each other, so they are left as one track. Track OUT-2 oddly sounds like it could fit in with a lot of indie/modern radio airplay, even more so if the lyrics were sung in English.